The Commission comes to terms with the reality that ASEAN operates on the basis of consensus, which would normally mean having to settle on the lowest common denominator. Nevertheless, the Commission hopes that the ASEAN Consensus on Migrant Workers, despite its shortcomings, would become an impetus for improved protection of migrant workers’ rights in Malaysia and in Southeast Asia. 5. MALAYSIA’S UNIVERSAL PERIODIC REVIEW (UPR) Malaysia is due to be reviewed for the third time under the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) mechanism in October 2018. This upcoming UPR seeks to mainly examine the progress and achievements made by Malaysia in implementing the commitments it made during the second UPR, which took place in October 2013. At its second UPR, Malaysia received a total of 232 recommendations from 104 UN member states. Of the 232 recommendations, the Malaysian government accepted 150. These recommendations related to various human rights issues including accession to international human rights treaties, civil and political rights, economic, social and cultural rights, rights of vulnerable groups, trafficking in persons and human rights education. The Malaysian government is expected to fulfil the accepted recommendations and report on their implementation come the third UPR, as part of the underlying goal of the UPR process to improve the human rights situation in the country. This year, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in its capacity as the coordinating agency for Malaysia’s UPR, organised a series of consultations involving government agencies and civil society organisations to obtain comments and input on the status of implementation of the accepted recommendations. S U H A K A M A N N U A L R EPOR T 2017 55 1 Migrant workers are seldom given the recognition they deserve for their painstaking efforts and instrumental role in the country’s nation building especially in sectors such as construction and plantation. C H A P T E R moment. Therefore, the Commission calls on the government to review relevant domestic laws with a view to making them in line with established human rights standards. Only then can Malaysia live up to the spirit and intent of the ASEAN Consensus on Migrant Workers.